'Numerous weaknesses' with WA Police firearm register

The Police Commissioner had announced a gun amnesty in response to concerns raised by the Auditor General about the management of firearms in WA.

In his Information Systems report tabled in Parliament, Auditor General Colin Murphy highlighted significant concerns with some agency information systems, most notably with the WA Police Firearms Management System.

He said numerous weaknesses were identified with the WA Police Firearms Register and its supporting systems.

"As a result of our findings, we have no confidence in the accuracy of basic information on the number of people licensed to possess firearms or the number of licensed or unlicensed firearms in Western Australia," Mr Murphy said.

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"In the absence of reliable information, WAP is unable to effectively manage firearms licensing and regulation in WA."

Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said many of the issues raised in Mr Murphy's report were linked with difficulties with the existing firearms registry.

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"That's been a problem for us for some years," but he said these would be addressed now that funding had been made available for a new database system.

Concerns such as firearms not recovered from deceased estates, use of template 'property' letters to obtain firearms and people assessed as unfit to have a firearm still listed as possessing them were identified as a direct or indirect result of having a lack of reliable data.

Dating back to 1983, almost 1000 licensed guns belonging to people who have died have never been recovered

Mr O'Callaghan said police were only notified of a death if police dealt with a sudden death or a coronial enquiry - most deaths were outside of those circumstances.

"The new system will actually deal with that issue," he said.

These 988 firearms indentified in the report were the main reason for Mr O'Callaghan to announce the amnesty of firearms on Thursday, where people will be able to hand in unlicensed weapons to police without fear of prosecution.

The amnesty will allow anyone with an unlicensed gun to hand it in, whether it belonged to someone who has now died or not.

The amnesty is expected to last for three months from August 1.

'Unfit to possess'

Other findings in the report included inaccurate recordings which showed more than 300 firearm licence holders still had firearms listed against their licence despite being classified by WAP as unfit to possess them and more than 25,000 instances where WA data could not be reconciled with the national database.

Mr O'Callaghan said many of the 300 firearm licence holders listed as still having firearms were not actually in possession of the firearms as they had been seized in circumstances such as family violence and were in the possession of police or someone else.

He said this sort of information needed to be updated and addressed.

Mr O'Callaghan said there were issues with "connectivity" between different databases that would improve firearm management which would also be dealt with in a new system which he expected would take about 12-18 months.

Letters of approval

The Attorney General's report also mentioned issues with the number of shooters given approval to use their firearms on some specific private properties.

Recreational firearm licence applications require an accompanying letter of approval from a property owner to use the licensed firearm on their property.

"While there is no limit to the number of property letters that can be issued by an individual property owner, it was concerning to find one property owner had provided property letters to over 270 applicants through a small number of firearms dealers over the past 17 months, and another had provided over 80 property letters through the one dealer," Mr Murphy said.

"WAP advised this practice was not illegal but acknowledge it is not in accordance with the intention of the legislation and expect this issue will be addressed through a proposed review of the relevant Act.

"Disappointingly, the Firearms Registry System cannot search or report on the number of property letters associated with each property making it difficult for WAP to identify any trends or areas of concern."

Mr O'Callaghan said this was loophole that Police Minister Liza Harvey would have to consider.

He also reiterated comments he had made previously that a limit on the number of firearms a person could own should be considered by the Police Minister, which would require a change to legislation.

This report is not the first to find issues with firearm management within the WA Police.

"We conducted performance audits on the management and regulation of firearms in 2000, 2004 and 2009, and in each report we identified various problems with the systems and processes for the licensing and management of firearms in Western Australia," Mr Murphy said.

"What this latest audit shows is that WAP still has a long way to go to ensure the Firearms Register and supporting systems are operating effectively."

Recommendations

The Auditor General's report listed a number of recommendations to rectify these issues.

"WAP must act on the recommendations of this report to ensure the integrity and functionality of the firearms management system and to provide the community with some assurance that firearms can be suitably managed in this state," Mr Murphy said.

WA Police are yet to respond to the findings of the report.

There are 81,711 firearm license holders in WA and 270,392 licensed firearms in the state.